How Sweet The Sound Seeks Bay Area's Best Choir And No-Longer Used Wireless Phones In California

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WALNUT CREEK, CA — Verizon Wireless announced today the Bay Area semi-finalists in the search for the nation's best church choir. The church choirs who have made it into the semi-final round of the Verizon Wireless' How Sweet The Sound(SM) national competition are:

Small Choirs (6-35 singers):

  • Independent Holiness Church — Tina Landry, Director
  • Antioch Church Family Voices — Rochell Mull, Director
  • Havenscourt Community Church — Keefe, Director
  • New St. Paul Community Baptist Church — Sharon Henry, Director

Large Choirs (36-100 singers):

  • Jubilee Christian Center — Eileen Deadwiler, Director
  • East Bay Church of Religious Science — Tyrone Cosey, Director

The semi-final competition will be held Oct. 10, 2008, at ORACLE Arena in Oakland. The six Oakland-area church choirs will be performing for a chance to compete in the national grand finale for a cash prize of up to $30,000 and the title of the best church choir in America. The doors to ORACLE Arena will open at 6:00 p.m. before the How Sweet The Sound competition begins at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 10. Tickets can be purchased via Ticketmaster or the ORACLE Arena Box Office and are $7 for floor seats and $5 for upper level seats.

Music fans planning to watch their favorite choirs compete during this event are encouraged to bring their no-longer-used wireless phones and donate them to Verizon Wireless' HopeLine® program. Verizon Wireless will collect the phones at booths set up at different locations throughout ORACLE Arena. All collected phones will support domestic violence prevention organizations.

HopeLine is Verizon Wireless' exclusive phone recycling and reuse program that collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any wireless service provider to benefit survivors of domestic violence. Proceeds from the HopeLine program are used to provide wireless phones and cash grants to local shelters and non-profit organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention and awareness. Since 2001, HopeLine has collected more than 5 million phones and awarded more than $5 million in cash grants to domestic violence agencies and organizations throughout the country.

Those who cannot make it to the Oct. 10 show can drop off their used wireless phones, batteries and accessories at any Verizon Wireless Communications Store across the state of California at any time of the year.

The Verizon Wireless How Sweet The Sound national finals are in Atlanta on Nov. 8. The semi-finalist winners from 11 cities will compete in the national grand finale. GRAMMY®-winning songwriter, producer, arranger and music director, Donald Lawrence, will be the tour emcee at each of the 11 semi-final competitions and at the finale. Marvin Sapp, Hezekiah Walker and other gospel artists will join the competition as judges.

For more information about Verizon Wireless and the HopeLine program, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 68.7 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 70,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, go to: www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

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